[Motoring]

The New Hupmobile Series R... The Car of the Australian Family [The New Hupmobile. Still Greater Value (cover title)]

Detroit, Hupp Motor Car Corporation (printed by Bloxham & Chambers, Limited, Sydney), [circa 1923].

Quarto, 16 pages with numerous illustrations.

Decorated wrappers lightly marked and creased; trifling production flaw to two consecutive leaves (slightly creased before printing); an excellent copy.

The company produced automobiles from 1909 to 1939. 'Top sales were reached in 1923, but by 1925 the car was fast becoming dated with its 24 inch wheels and two wheel mechanical brakes' (Duncan Hudson: 'The Hupmobile Motor Car in Australia', 1988). 'By 1928 sales had reached over 65,000 units.... Sales and production began to fall even before the depression in 1930. A strategy to make the Hupmobile a larger, more expensive car began with the 1925 introduction of an 8-cylinder model, followed by the elimination of the 4-cylinder Hupmobile after 1925. (Hupmobile made only 4-cylinder cars from 1909 to 1924.) While aiming for a more lucrative market segment, Hupp turned its back on its established clientele. This was the same mistake that many other medium-priced carmakers made at the same time. In an attempt to capture every possible sale, they offered many different models. With Hupmobile's low production volume, the result was that no model could be produced in sufficient quantity to achieve economy of scale' (Wikipedia). This lavish booklet is not in Trove, and seems to have been unknown to Hudson.